Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: meetings, meetings

[Rob Sandelin (robsan]

vicky de monterey  asked:
>Are any groups exploring alternatives to long frequent meetings as ways
>to stay connected and still have time for hobbies (like laundry...)?

Ten alternatives to long boring meetings.

1. Get an understanding of what meetings are good for, and not good 
for.  For example does the whole group need to be in on this, or can a 
subgroup take care of this is a good question to ask lots.   It is a 
huge waste of time if you are using the large group resource to do 
small group work.  For example the large group is best used for 
brainstorming, not for sorting and categorizing of a brainstorm.

2. Use written surveys to get peoples opinions, not large group 
meetings.  These can be tallied up by a task force and you will get a 
good section of what people think.

3. Post minutes and notes, don't report on them in meetings.  Put the 
burden on the individual to keep up with what's going on, not on the group.

4.  Do info sessions over dinner.  Invite people over for dinner who 
have questions. Invite people who have answers.  Sit them down, feed 
them and let them talk.

5. Hold meetings doing interesting things rather than sitting around a 
table. The best board meeting I can recall was when we held the meeting 
picking blueberries.  Hold a dance meeting or a drumming meeting.

6.  Create a community newsletter to pass around info, ideas, opinions, 
recipes, kids art, etc.  Doesn't have to be fancy.

7.  Find a central place to post things, messages, announcements, open 
letters, artwork and comics.  One community I know of which was in 
progress sort of informally took over a corner of the local stores 
bulletin board with their messages and meeting announcements.  This had 
the added impact of integrating them into the larger community.

8.  Use a phone message service.  These cost almost nothing these days 
and can be a great way to post messages about stuff....Press one for 
yes, star for no, or pound for what the hell.

9. Create a phone tree. One person calls two others, who calls two others.

10.  Make a point to break the meetings up by doing something fun, 
interesting, creative, challenging, stimulating right in the middle. 
Sing songs, go for a ten minute walk, chop wood, sit in quiet 
meditation for five minutes, recite a poem, dance, massage each other, 
tell funny stories.